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Consoling Couple
The Consoling Couple is a couple of husband and wife''Half-Life 2'' subtitle file seen through the Half-Life 2 games story arc. In the first chapter of Half-Life 2, Point Insertion, a man sitting on a couch can be seen embracing a woman while she weeps over their grim situation. They have appeared at least once in every game so far since their first appearance, and have been confirmed to be the same characters each time."The Hypermodern Muse" on Marc Laidlaw's official blog Appearances ''Half-Life 2'' *The player passes by them while going through the apartments in Point Insertion, just before the Civil Protection raid (map "d1_trainstation_03"). *At the very start of the Canals after leaving Kleiner's Lab, the player finds a Citizen couple being beaten by Metrocops. Since the same models are used, it is possible the couple is the same, if the player looks closely the man is still moving his head slightly, indicating he is alive and they're possibly the couple. *They later appear in a different apartment in Anticitizen One, near the drawbridges, in Resistance attire. The man now sports a goatee (map "d3_c17_06b"). ''Half-Life 2: Episode One'' They can be seen, again in Resistance attire, on the ground floor of the building where Barney is met. However, this time the woman is not as upset and can be heard making sarcastic remarks about Doctor Kleiner, the Resistance, and their current plight in general (map "ep1_c17_02b"). ''Half-Life 2: Episode Two'' *Two skeletons can be found slumped in a similar pose on a couch in the Outlands, near the Autogun outpost. This sighting is merely only an Easter egg as they are seen alive later in the game (map "ep2_outland_09"). *When first going to visit Uriah at White Forest, the couple appears to have managed to leave City 17 alive, as it is seen through Eli's / Kleiner's office window (map "ep2_outland_11"). Behind the scenes *The name "Consoling Couple" appears as the name of the "logic_choreographed_scene" script used by the NPCs, "cits_consoling_couple". *According to Marc Laidlaw, the Consoling Couple was included in the game as a reference to the cameo characters Honey and Darling from the Legend of Zelda video games Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, because he liked the idea of self-contained characters "caught in a loop", indifferent to the player's actions and the main plot and adding the sense that the world continues beyond the boundary of the map, and that, in the case of Half-Life 2, not all the stories began on day one or will end with the final battle. At the start of Half-Life 2, the Consoling Couple deepens the sense of tragedy, the horrible state of the world; the second time they are seen, they are intended as a joke, as their behavior has not changed despite the fact that they are in the center of an ongoing war. Trivia *In their first appearance their collision box does not match their pose, so, any object put over their heads appears floating. *In their first appearance, if the player stares at them long enough, the man may snap at them to leave. *It possible to arm the couples with weapons in Episode One, by bringing a weapon in front of unarmed Rebels. However, they will only hold the weapon while talking to each other. Gallery File:D1 trainstation 030008.jpg|Another view of the first Half-Life 2 appearance. File:D1 trainstation 030001.jpg|Ditto. File:Police brutality.jpg|Possible appearance at the very start of the Canals. File:D3 c17 06b01.jpg|Second Half-Life 2 appearance. File:Couch Couple Ep 1.jpg|Near Barney's post. File:Couch couple ep2 outland 09.jpg|As skeletons near the Autogun outpost. File:Couple white forest.jpg|At White Forest. List of appearances *''Half-Life 2'' *''Half-Life 2: Episode One'' *''Half-Life 2: Episode Two'' References Category:Easter eggs Category:Rebels Category:Half-Life 2 Category:Half-Life 2: Episode One Category:Half-Life 2: Episode Two Category:Males Category:Females